Feature: Gina Prince-Bythewood

Gina Prince-Bythewood wrote and directed the widely acclaimed feature film LOVE & BASKETBALL, which premiered at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. Prince-Bythewood won an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature and a Humanitas Prize for her work on the film. Her other feature directing credits include the HBO film Disappearing Acts. The most recent film she directed is BEYOND THE LIGHTS, a love story staring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, which was released in 2014.

Prince-Bythewood obtained her first feature film producer credit in 2003 on BIKER BOYZ, a Dreamworks film which was co-written and directed by her husband, Reggie Rock Bythewood.

Prince-Bythewood studied at UCLA Film School, where she received the Gene Reynolds Scholarship for Directing and the Ray Stark Memorial Scholarship for Outstanding Undergraduate. Upon her graduation, she was immediately hired as a writer on the television series A Different World. She continued to write and produce for network television on series such as Felicity, South Central, Courthouse and Sweet Justice before making the transition to directing.

Her television directorial debut was the CBS Schoolbreak Special What About Your Friends, which won Prince-Bythewood an NACCP Image Award for Best Children’s Special and two Emmy nominations for writing and directing. She has also directed episodes of the hit television comedies Everybody Hates Chris and Girlfriends.

Prince-Bythewood currently resides in Southern California with her husband Reggie and their sons Cassius and Toussaint.